


Words we’ve always known

by thenotsogingerale



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, I basically added only like one tiny little thing but it’s exactly like canon, Liam Questions His Sexuality, M/M, during season 6b, make out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-02-15 17:03:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13035573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenotsogingerale/pseuds/thenotsogingerale
Summary: Since the day you are born, you have tattooed somewhere on your skin a sentence, those words will be the ones that make you fall in love with your soulmate, Liam is stressed by the fact that instead of a sentence, he's only got a single word. Theo has two.Or, alternatively, the one in which everything is exactly the same except Liam and Theo are aware of the fact that they're soulmates.





	Words we’ve always known

**Author's Note:**

> Besides the fact that I totally put a random title cause I don't care, I put my whole heart into this fic and I sincerely hope whoever is reading it likes it too. Fyi, I wrote this listening to: Havana by Camila Cabello, Wolves by Selena Gomez and Perfect Duet by Ed Sheeran and Beyoncé, so it's pretty influenced by the lyrics of those three songs.  
> What else to say if not that I hope you enjoy this, have a nice read!

It wasn’t even a whole sentence, it was only one word, four letters. One of the most common words in the English language, one of the first words kids learn when they’re beginning to talk, that fits every single context and Liam was a thousand percent sure he had heard it being said by literally every single person he knew. It was tattooed on the inside of his left wrist and he stared at it for minutes, hours, when he couldn’t sleep.

When he was 12 his mother told him that everyone had it, not the same word, but a sentence, a quote tattooed somewhere, she explained that those were the words he would fall in love with his soulmate to. She showed him her tattoo, and it was not only a sentence, it was an entire speech, written on the upper part of her back, right under the neck, and the words were so meaningful that he would’ve fallen in love too if someone told him that.

“But mine is only a word. It’s not meaningful, or deep, it’s just a number, without any context, how am I supposed to fall in love with someone saying ‘five’?” Liam responded, the whole thing angered him every time he thought about it.

“You will understand it when you hear it” his mother simply answered, and they never talked about it ever since.

—

When he was 16, a lot of things had changed since they had that conversation, he met Scott McCall, who turned out to be a werewolf and bit him, so now Liam was a werewolf too, and then he had started helping him with the supernatural threats, plus there was school, so he had been too busy to think about soulmates.

When he started dating Hayden he wasn’t really sure whether she was his soulmate or not, but at some point she must’ve said “five”, and at some point he must’ve started loving her.

Despite all the issues regarding the supernatural, chimeras, Dread Doctors, the wild hunt, Hayden and Liam managed to date for several months, and he thought that it had to be her, because he truly loved her, she truly loved him and they were happy together.

Until the summer when Hayden left, she moved with her sister to the other side of the country and they had to break up.

Liam had been sincerely sure that Hayden was his soulmate, but at that point she was gone and he realised he had to be wrong, because what kind of garbage fate could separate soulmates like this?

‘What kind of garbage fate could separate soulmates like this?’ was actually a pretty good question that kept him up at nights, mind wandering through the memories of his dead father, then moving onto his stepfather. Who was his mother’s soulmate’s, between the two?

Was it his father, whom cruel fate dramatically decided to tear away from his family when Liam was just a kid? Or was it his stepfather? If the latter, why fate made his mother wait so long before finding him?

All these questions ended up unanswered every time.

—

When school started again, and the hunters began to threaten him and his friends, for the second time love was not a problem anymore, so he eventually ignored it and managed to forget Hayden.

He ignored it so much he didn’t even notice he had gotten significantly closer to someone else, but even if he had noticed it, he wouldn’t have ever thought that the someone was his soulmate. Mainly because that someone was Theo fucking Raeken.

Theo, who manipulated every single member of the pack into liking him, who put them all against each other, who managed to convince Liam into killing Scott, who lacks of any human emotions, fucking Raeken.

On the other side, Theo had helped them a lot against the Ghost Riders, and he saved Liam’s life, and fought by his side. But he was still Theo fucking Raeken.

The fact that Liam was still figuring himself out didn’t help much, it only made things more confusing.

He found out that ‘straight’ wasn’t the only option when he was a kid, but never doubted that he was anything else than that.

He liked girls, he dated girls, so he couldn’t possibly be gay, right? Right.

Although, there was a word that had been wandering around Liam’s head for a while, since seventh grade.

He started remembering all the little crushes he has had in primary school on other boys, and how he never noticed that they were actual crushes, only because he’s been told that boys only like girls.

He wouldn’t have minded holding hands with another boy, kissing another boy, sleeping with another boy, like Mason did.

But he liked girls too.

He liked girls, he dated girls, so he couldn’t possibly be gay. But he also liked boys, and he would’ve dated boys, so he couldn’t possibly be straight either.

By the end of freshman year, Liam had already started to mentally define himself with the new, wandering word, but only after having a proper talk about the matter with Mason, who for first dared to say the word they were both thinking but none of them mentioned.

“Dude, stop dancing around it, you’re bi” Mason finally said, and added “so what? It’s not that big of a deal” as soon as he saw Liam’s distressed expression.

“It’s weird hearing it said out loud” he said as he looked down on his own bedsheets, “but I guess you’re right”

“Try saying it, it’s gonna make you feel better, trust me”

Liam took a deep breath in, then looked up at Mason and breathed out a “I’m bisexual”

As soon as he said the word he felt like a 100 pounds weight just lifted from his chest, one corner of his mouth turned up in a relieved smile and he repeated “I’m bi”, a little louder this time.

He was worried, worried about what would’ve happened if his parents found out, what if they wouldn’t accept it?

But that didn’t matter anymore at that point, it took him an incredibly long time, it hadn’t been easy, spending hours and hours thinking about it, both during the night and during the day, but he figured it out, and it felt amazing and terrifying at the same time.

—

They both were in his truck, Theo was driving and Liam had just woken up after being knocked out.

He opened his eyes to an unbearable pain widened on most of the right side of his face, he reached for his own nose and jaw to check that nothing was broken. As the hand made contact with his cheek he squinted, his skin started burning in pain under his touch and he let out a couple of soft grunts.

“I had to knock you out” Theo said, hearing his complaint, with an amused smirk.

“Yeah, how many times?” Liam asked absentmindedly, still touching his own jaw to check for any fracture.

“Five” the other answered, still smirking.

It took Liam a second before it clicked, he stared at his own left inner wrist, the other hand still on his face, the word echoing in his head as he let out a huff. He remembered what his mother told him, how the tattoo was the word that he would’ve fallen in love with his soulmate to, but could it be possible that it had been Theo the whole time?

Then he thought about Theo and how he tried to be good, how he passed his hand through his hair when he was thinking, how they looked at each other when they were obligated to leave Beacon Hills, how he grinned proudly when he said that he knocked him out five times.

He thought about his voice, and how it managed to sound both adenoidal and husky at the same time, and realised that it was really attractive and soothing. How clever, charismatic, hypnotising he actually was.

He thought about the way Theo grinned when he said “I’m impressed”, about how he felt Theo’s gaze on him several times lately and about all the times Theo saved his life, what if he didn’t save him in order to get Scott’s trust again, but only out of sincere love?

The idea would’ve been ridiculous at any other time, but during that moment it made so much sense that Liam forgot what they were talking about, so he simply shook slightly his head to forget about the whole soulmate thing and searched for another topic to talk about.

—

In the following days things with the hunters escalated quickly and Liam really didn’t have time to talk to Theo about it, they were both too concentrated on winning the war to talk about themselves.

The last day of war was a bloodbath. Right before the fight, Liam found himself trapped by the hunters at the hospital, but Theo appeared and dragged him into the elevator. Liam looked at him confused, and after a while that they were inside the elevator, the hunters were still in the hallway.

“I’m not dying for you” Theo said looking into Liam’s eyes.

Ironic, he risked his life several times to save Liam before, but would he ever admit it?

Liam looked back at him, and only in that moment he noticed how green his eyes were, Liam had definitely seen green before in his life, but the color in Theo’s eyes, that was a completely new shade of green. It was incredibly light, as if the irises were made of grass trapped under a thin coat of ice, and he loved it.

“I’m not dying for you either” Liam had to look away, because if he had looked for one more instant into Theo’s eyes he probably would’ve kissed him. Although, the idea of making out in an elevator while there’s a war going on outside was quite appealing.

—

Theo got shot on the shoulder and, even worse, he got shot while saving Liam. He was a werewolf so it wouldn’t have taken much for it to heal, but Liam was still concerned, it could’ve been a wolfsbane bullet and the last thing he needed was a dying Theo.

He dragged Theo through the hallway until they found an empty room and they both went inside.

“Liam, what the hell are you do-”

“Let me see if the shot is healing” he quickly interrupted him while closing the door.

“It’s going to heal, don’t worry”

“What if it was a wolfsbane bullet? Just let me check it”

Theo huffed, but he knew that Liam would’ve insisted, so he turned his back to Liam and took off his shirt, who watched the hole heal itself.

“It’s fine” Liam started “you can-”

The sentence remained suspended in the air as Theo turned again to face Liam, who instantly noticed the two black words tattooed right above the other’s collarbone. “Not really” Liam read them out loud before Theo put his shirt back on, he looked up at Liam while adjusting the black shirt and stared at him.

“Well, it’s… you know what it is” he said, keeping his gaze on the younger boy.

Liam didn’t say anything, just looked down his own wrist and then tried to remember if he ever told Theo ‘not really’, and especially what was the context. His mind went back months and months, until the moment when they were fighting the Ghost Riders and Theo had just saved his life again, Liam remembered jumping on a horse and being asked “do you even know how to ride a horse?”, to which he replied “not really”, but no, it couldn’t have been that.

He looked back at Theo, who looked briefly away, and showed him the word on his wrist, “you… you said it a few days ago, when we- we were in your truck” Liam added stumbling on the words, knowing that most probably it was just all a coincidence, “but it’s, you know, it’s a pretty common word, so I guess-”

“It was about damn time” Theo interrupted him, moving his gaze from the word on the wrist to Liam’s eyes.

“Wha-what?” Liam looked at him confused, eyebrows raised “are you telling me that…”

“Yeah, I can’t believe that I’m actually saying it out loud, but yeah, you said it a while ago and… you know, it hit me”

“How long?”

“Since the Ghost Riders, when I asked you if you could-”

“You’ve known for months and you didn’t tell me anything?” Liam asked while a sense of guilt climbed through his spine.

“You were with Hayden” Theo answered looking directly at Liam “and then I knew you wouldn’t have reacted nicely at the time”

“What do you mean?” Liam asked, confused again.

“Imagine if I, before last summer, came to you and told you that I’m…” Theo hesitated before saying the words he’s been waiting to tell Liam for months “…desperately in love with you, what would you have said?”

“I would’ve… laughed. Yeah I see your point” Liam said before letting out a sigh and looking the other way, “I’m just… I’m sorry that you had to spend so much time alone, knowing that I was with someone else”

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it” Theo responded with one corner of his mouth turned up in some sort of a grin.

Liam brought his eyes on Theo, and smirked noticing how, even right after a brutal fight against the hunters, he still looked flawless. Liam took a slow step forward, looked quickly back at the black ink on his wrist, then looked back at Theo, thinking back at every time his mind went on him during the last days, at every time he thought his soulmate was Theo fucking Raeken.

And it was, his soulmate really was Theo fucking Raeken.

Now that he was closer he could clearly smell Theo’s scent, because of the proximity it was intoxicating and intense and it made him feel hot from under his stomach down.

Before realising it, Liam had already dragged Theo into a kiss, and he didn’t seem to mind. It wasn’t like one of those movie kisses, hot and appealing, neither it was soft and innocent. Liam was glad no one was there to see it, because it mustn’t have looked good. It was sloppy and desperate, as if they’ve been waiting for it their entire lives.

Liam’s right fingers ran through Theo’s hair, while the hand with the tattoo was placed on the back of his neck. Theo’s hand was on Liam’s hip, while the other arm was wrapped around his waist, behind his back and held him as if his entire life depended on it.

Liam felt like nothing and everything made sense at the same time, he was in an empty hospital room making out with Theo fucking Raeken right after winning a supernatural war, he should’ve felt like it was nonsensical, weird and really out of place. If exactly one year earlier someone told him that he would’ve kissed Theo Raeken he would’ve laughed so hard that his stomach would’ve hurt for weeks.

His lips felt exactly as soft as they looked. Hell, Liam didn’t even notice he’s been looking at Theo’s lips before. The hand behind his back felt warm and comforting, just like it felt every time Theo casually touched him.

After what seemed like an eternity, they both slowly pulled away and let their foreheads and noses brush against each other for a slight moment, before opening their eyes. As Liam struggled to keep a steady breath, he looked at Theo, who was wearing a soft and positively surprised smirk on his lips, fingers still through his hair, and couldn’t help but mutter “fuck, you’re good at this”, which earned him a mumbled laugh from Theo.


End file.
